I've completed my Russian Studies degree at Dalhousie University. For the second term of my third year I studied at St. Petersburg State University at the Centre of Russian Language and Culture. I've also been very interested in studying history so my Russian Studies degree has a bit of a history slant (at least as far as possible at Dal). I'm still evaluating my options for future study. I may study some more history and philosophy at the undergrad level. I've thought about doing some history grad work too but I think that I need to do some more undergrad before that.
When I returned from Russia I thought that I had pretty much figured out what I wanted to do with university. I had decided what I wanted to take in fourth year (which would have been my last year). Unfortunately, hardly any of the courses that I wanted to take are offered that year. I also found that my motivation for finishing my degree (or doing any school for that matter) was completely lacking. I felt trapped, I didn't want to finish my degree and starting over was equally unappealing. Then one night it hit me, why was I going to school that year anyways? When I couldn't answer that question (other than "out of habit") then I knew that I shouldn't go to school that year. It seemed that having my degree in no way affected any of my plans for what I want to do. It seemed that my degree was just superfluous. I realise that I could take a year off and it would in no way affect my degree but might affect what I wanted to do with my life. Instead of completely abandoning academia I chose to only study part time. Part of this was determined by the fact that I would have had to pay back a grant I was given if I didn't but that wasn't the only factor. It seemed that if I took a few courses (not Russian courses) then I could fulfill some prerequisites for other courses that I wanted to take which would thus give me more options for my final year.
That term turned into my final term for my BA. I had been a half credit short of completing 3 years (had dropped a course in an earlier term) so I was able to fill that out and graduate with a 3 year BA. It's not the same as a 4 year degree but I decided that while I was figuring out what to do academically it would be nice to have something to show for my efforts. Plus, I can go back at any time and upgrade to a 4 year honours degree if I should so desire.
What I've found is that while I've been working in jobs that I don't like my desire to go back to school is very high. I've looked into a number of different programs and I can get fired up about some of them for awhile but gradually my interest fades. I think a lot of this has been an escape mechanism. School has been such a huge part of my life up to now and work is a much smaller part of my life. When work isn't good then I start looking for other things to do and the only other thing I know is school. But I'm also starting to learn that maintaining some balance is really good. I've tended to try to go "all or nothing" and I think that may be why I can get so burnt out. My newer way of trying to do things is to maintain a balance. What I've found is that if all you do is work and work sucks then a large portion of your life sucks. If you get involved with other things as well then work can suck just as much as before but it's a smaller part of your overall life so it doesn't necessarily bother you as much. I've managed to apply this a little bit by pursuing some continuing education courses at NSCAD. Most of these were taken while I was working a rotating schedule at Eastlink so it was really hard. But I did find my mood was a lot better and work didn't bother me as much.
Now that I'm exploring different things with working with CUSO I really don't know where I'm going to end up in the future. School is still in my mind but I'm planning to just do my placement and see what comes up. If something sticks then hopefully I'll be able to run with it.
It's a bit ironic that I'm now so unsure about what my future study plans are, when I graduated high school I thought that I had it all figured out and that I wouldn't be one of those people who go to university to try to figure that out. Now I'm out of university and I can't figure out what I want to do. I guess in a lot of ways I'm still really looking for something that can really drive me. Unfortunately, I seem to have the greatest interest in what I'm not doing at the time. Once I can actually give it attention I find that my interest drops some. I need to find something that can drive me while I'm actually doing it.